back has been acting up a bit of late so I'm going to start doing a bit of core work every day, separate to my regular workouts. Just a few sets of jacknives, stir-the-pot, dead bugs etc. Nothing too heavy or anything that'll interfere with my gym time. I'll try and vary it from day to day as well.

Not going to bother logging it, but I'll report as to whether or not I'm noticing benefits.

shoulder actually feels better, maybe even trainable, but I'm still going to take the week off upper stuff and just do my legs. I think I can get 3 leg workouts in if I really try. I'll do sets of shoulder health stuff between leg exercises. Cuban rolls, no money drill, band pull aparts etc.

You've logged two leg sessions in Feb and today it's the 26th? No wonder that shoulder is hurting.

haha, yeah I missed last week, and didn't log the one before. I've been training like I'm supposed to, don't worry.

I was going to train legs a couple of times this week since I missed last week and I'm not doing any upper work this week, but my left knee's being a bit funny so I've decided just to take the week off completely.

My back is feeling pretty good thanks. It felt good the other week though and when it came to being used it didn't like it too much. It' happened before, time to dial it back for a few weeks and then ramp it up again. In the meantime I'll work on a few areas which I think are contributing to the problem.

_________________What if the Hokey Cokey really IS what it's all about?

How about some pump work with goblet squats or lunges?I've had fun doing these two variations:

Lunges with 5210 -tempo. So 5s eccentric, 2s pause on the bottom, come up but never to full extension and change legs.Goblet squat 1,5 reps or elevator reps whatever you like to call them. Go down, come halfway up, go down, then come up. That's one.

How about some pump work with goblet squats or lunges?I've had fun doing these two variations:

Lunges with 5210 -tempo. So 5s eccentric, 2s pause on the bottom, come up but never to full extension and change legs.Goblet squat 1,5 reps or elevator reps whatever you like to call them. Go down, come halfway up, go down, then come up. That's one.

Both are awesome leg burners and need very little weight.

aye those are some good ideas mate, cheers. I'm a little wary of the goblet squats as the last couple of times I've hurt myself squatting it was with a really light weight, so I'm nervous about any kind of squat movement pattern. Goblet squats'll most likely be a good intermediate step between not squatting and squatting though so I'll keep them in mind.

I've been doing swiss ball jacknives every workout for the last couple of weeks. As I understand it, they train hip flexion with a neutral spine which is obviously something I desperately need. My back's definitely improving; I can walk around all day without it tightening up now which I couldn't do a month or so ago, so something's getting better. I reckon realistically it'll be 6 weeks or so before I'm squatting again.

I find it odd that I always want to share something bodybuilding related with you..Anyhow, about the John Meadows and stretch-hypertrophy methods. I also learned about them from John, Shelby and I can't remember who was the scientist behind this consept but it was on Blue Collar Muscle Radio.

My chest has always been very flat, so I started to play around with the idea and did two types of chest supersets on my upper body days. It actually increased my chest circumference by 2cm while cutting weight in just 4 weeks! So I don't know, maybe there is some truth to it, will definitely try the stretching methods with my biceps as well. Here's what I did:

Workout A, last exercise:Cable Fly 3 x near failureRest was a 30s stretch done in a lengthened cable fly position. Basically I was holding on to the handles trough all the sets and rest. So there was constant tension there. It was brutal.

Workout B, Superset/DropsetDB Bench press (With focus on chest, wider grip, more flare, etc) 3 x 10-15DB Fly 3 x 10 (310X tempo). Slow eccentric, 1 or 2 second pause and a bit shorter rom from the top. Again, constant tension. Then when failure was around the corner I usually did just a longer isometric hold near the bottom position for a couple of seconds.Those were done with only a minor rest after both exercises, about 30-45s max.

Worked for me, I messed around with the idea a little every workout and tried those methods a bit differently, but the pump was there, and apparently it could have lead to minor growth too.

You know me Dub, always happy to talk bodybuilding with an educated gentleman such as yourself!

The stretching exercises once a muscle's pumped is a central tenet of John Meadows's training philosophy, so it's interesting to hear that there's some science behind it. It just made sense to me so I thought I'd give it a try. It's one of the reasons I was pre-exhausting on the pec deck before dumbell pressing. I've stopped pre-exhausting for now though to get my strength on the decline bench up a bit.

Those loaded stretches are just horrible. They're used a lot in DC training which you actually might quite enjoy. I've never done it, but it's a bodybuilding routine with a lot of emphasis on getting stronger in the basic lifts. You should check it out, might quite suit you.

The problem I have with loaded stretches is I resist it too much, if you see what I mean, so it just becomes an isometric

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